Each year the Chesterton High School Jazz Ensemble concludes their school year by presenting their annual spring jazz concert entitled, “All That Jazz.” This year’s concert marks the 42nd year that noted professional musicians have been asked to perform as guest artists for the event. The guest artists serve as clinicians for the group by rehearsing with the band at length during the evening prior to the concert date, and then again on the day of the concert.
Headlining the event is the “The Rick Haydon Quartet.” Members include Guitarist Rick Haydon, Bassist Zeb Briskovich, Trumpeter Garrett Schmidt and Drummer Miles Vandiver. All of the members of the group are highly accomplished and respected jazz musicians and music educators.
“All That Jazz” Opus XLII will include the CHS Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Michael Scheiber. Tickets are available at the door, or through the CHS Music Department.
The concert will take place in the CHS Auditorium on Saturday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are all $8 each. All seating is general admission. For more information, contact the CHS Music Office at 983-3730.
Guitarist Rick Haydon
Rick Haydon is a Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville where he is Director of Jazz Studies, head of the Guitar Program and manages the recording studio. He teaches Advanced Jazz Improvisation, Rhythm Section Workshop, Private Applied Jazz Guitar, supervises the Jazz Combo System, and directs the Jazz Guitar Ensemble. Rick has served on the summer faculties of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Band Director Academy, the Birch Creek Music Center.
Professor Haydon has been performing professionally for over thirty-five years and has played in a variety of situations. In 1996 he performed with Herb Ellis and Mundell Lowe during the Guitar Foundation of America International Guitar Convention. He performed with Bucky Pizzarelli before a sold out concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St.Louis in November of 1998. Rick was the featured guest artist at the 2002 Quad City Jazz Festival along with Mulgrew Miller. In 2004 Rick performed with John Pizzarelli at the Classic American Guitar Show in Long Island, New York as part of the Jazz Cabaret Series. Also Professor Haydon received the 2004 Woody Herman Award from the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County,Wisconsin. In 2006 he released a recording titled Rick Haydon and John Pizzarelli ‘Just Friends’ for Mel Bay Records that reached 15 on the Jazz Week Top 100 charts. His most recent CD is “4” on Jazz Compass with Clay Jenkins, Gary Hobbs, and Reggie Thomas.
Drummer Miles Vandiver
At eleven years old, Miles began touring and performing professionally. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he played in several groups that received regional and national success, including Vargas Swing and Commonwealth. In recent years, he has played weeklong engagements at St. Louis’s premier jazz club Jazz at the Bistro. There, he has performed with Eric Reed, Carla Cook, Bucky Pizzarelli, Anne Hampton Calloway, Mary Stallings and Laverne Butler. He has also recorded and performed with Tom Kennedy, Ray Kennedy, Brian Owens, Reggie and Mardra Thomas, Harry Allen, Howard Alden, Mulgrew Miller, Tom Scott, and Frank Morgan. Miles is currently the drummer for the Peter Mayer Group and Mailboat recording artist Brendan Mayer. His creative ventures include recording and producing records of diverse musical styles. He is on the SIUE music faculty as a jazz instructor and coordinator of recording activities.
Trumpeter Garrett Schmidt, from Alhambra, Ill., is an Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Schmidt has performed with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, the John LaBarbera Big Band, the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Frankie Valli. He has also performed on The Today Show, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and at Studio 54 with the Broadway cast of Cabaret.
Bassist Zeb Briskovich
Zeb Briskovich is an acoustic and Electric Bassist based in Saint Louis, Missouri whose wealth of experience and prodigious talent as a performer, composer and educator have made him one of the most in-demand bassists in the Midwest. Born in Bunker Hill, Illinois, Briskovich began his musical career at an early age, playing professionally and touring with his mother’s country band at age 10. His talent then led him to Southern Illinoise University Edwardsville, where he earned a Bachelor of Music Performance degree in 2002. Upon graduating, he was immediately hired by SIUE, where he cureently serves as the jazz bass instructor and ensemble director. In addition to SIUE, he also serves on the music faculty of Washington University in St.Louis. With a wide variety of performances to his credit, Briskovich has worked with jazz greats Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli Clark Terry, Grady Tate, Ann Hampton Calloway, and Reggie Thomas, as well as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and indie rock band, Dropkick the Robot. He has toured the U.S. and Europe extensively with the Cole Porter Review, Circus Flora, and Mary Stallings at the famous Half-Note Club in Athens, Greece. Briskovich leads his own jazz fusion group, Rare Departure, which was recently featured at St. Louis’ premier jazz venue, Jazz at the Bistro. As well as performing frequently as a sideman on the St. Louis music scene, his versatility to play any style has made him one of the most sought-after session players, recording on countless projects.